Rash's poems and stories have appeared in more than 100 magazines and journals. Serena received enthusiastic reviews across and beyond the United States and was a 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist.

In addition to being a bestselling novelist, Rash has achieved international acclaim as a short story author,[3] winning the Frank O'Connor Award in 2010 for Burning Bright.[4] Recent work such as The Outlaws (Oxford American, Summer, 2013) demonstrates Rash's ability to create universal tragedies out of ordinary lives in southern Appalachia. Scholars have praised his ability to find the universal within the particulars of place, citing his writing's "universal appeal, lyrical grace, and narrative efficiency." [5]

Ron Rash holds the John and Dorothy Parris Professorship in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University, where he teaches poetry and fiction-writing in the Department of English.

Thirteen short stories, eight of which were previously published in Casualties ("Chemistry," "Last Rite," "Not Waving But Drowning," "Overtime," "Cold Harbor", "Honesty", "Dangerous Love," "The Projectionist's Wife,"). Also includes the O. Henry Prize Winner "Speckled Trout" as well as "Pemberton's Bride," a story that gives a taste of Rash's forthcoming novel.

A family is afflicted with a series of grave misfortunes. Their lives, particularly Laurel’s, are interrupted at the arrival of a mute stranger who has been found after suffering a severe number of wasp stings.

Above the Waterfall (2015)

Set in contemporary Appalachia, about lives shaped by violence and a powerful connection to the land.